25th...
27th in AP poll...
22nd in KenPom...
26th in Torvik...
I think we've looked like a top 10-15 team for long stretches this season thus far, and we looked like a 50-75 ranked team for long stretches last night. Handle Lindenwood, and then beat KState, and I think we'll be pushing to around 20th heading in to the opening of B10 season, and the big games against UL and UK... I know they don't mean anything, right now, but seeing numbers next to IU's name on the tickers again, will feel pretty good.
With our past two coaches we usually went backwards in KenPom and Torvik. We're trending the right direction.
I'm not gonna panic over one off night where the game was still never really in doubt.
Now, we of course want to see some bounce back here vs. mighty Lindenwood.
@tammany BS. You can’t tell me you didn’t say oh thank god when tuck made that three and then when they came back and hit a three I still thought it wasn’t over.
Never a doubt.
Having seen us down big in some exhibition games, and then battle back and win, I was pretty confident that they would not fold. But I admittedly was a little nervous in the final minutes as IW kept hanging around and closing the gap. They also weren't going to fold either, some teams would have broken being down 20 in the 2nd half but to their credit they kept playing.
@ams66 Some tidbits from CDD's post game interview. They didn't get good enough pressure out top, which made it too easy on their guards to get in to the paint, and then get quick passes out for shots, and ball reversals. Our fouling issues in the first couple games were a hot topic of discussion. I suspected this, but it appears CDD was/is really trying to force guarding the ball hard, and extending that out away from the basket. When we face guards that are strong, good with the ball, and comfortable and capable of hitting mid range jumpers, like IW guards, and the Milwaukee guard too for that matter, we're gonna give up some of those shots. What can't happen though, that happened too often against IW in the second half, are early blow bys. We have to be able to ride them away from the paint, or we're gonna be in really bad spots.
We did that pretty well early against IW, we didn't for most of the 2nd half. I wouldn't say we really did anything to "close them out" though. DeVries hit a huge 3 that kept the game out of reach. But the last 10 minutes or so were pretty much all IW.
I didn't ever fear we were going to lose to IW. But last year I would have. Way too close for comfort but I did feel we would prevail.